Gamera II: the Human Powered Quadcopter
Capital of Nasty, an Electronic Magazine - ISSN 1482-0471
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 20:00 (6974/527)
Categories:
Travel
The Gamera II, a giant human-powered quadrotor strapped to a deformed bicycle frame, broke world records for flying for almost a minute. The working contraption -- which looks exhausting to operate -- was built by students from the University of Maryland.
There are still some problems to be ironed out: one is drift. Dennis Bodewits, an assistant research scientist in the astronomy department and one of the pilots, told Discovery News that the size of the room can limit the tests because the helicopter drifts too close to a wall. But flights of 30 seconds are becoming standard, and the group is still working to optimize the drive train to get more power.
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